Kagome, Kagome
by CannibaLilly
Summary: What if the BO has already found out about the effect of APTX4869 and does now do experiments on people to find out more? slightly Ran x Conan / Shinichi M for body-parts A FF based on the song "Kagome, Kagome" jap. for Circle you by Vocaloid.
1. The pleasepleasefindhimman

_Info: ~ rated M for body parts & creepiness~_

_Pls notice, this is a FF written by a scaredy cat ;P I just couldn't resist writing it since I listen to the song "Kagome, Kagome" by Vocaloid. If you want you can listen to this song, too so you know what's waiting for you in this story. If not it's also ok. It will save you the surprise and the song isn't necessary to understand my FF ;)_

_Oh and special thanks to LEP-Surface Division who was my Beta-reader for this chapter ^^_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter 1: The please-please-find-him-man<strong>_

{Wataru Omeda}

Wataru Omeda-san knew he was going to die. Not because they told him, no that was no reason to be aware of his death. Two years ago many people (people a lot more faithful than those who where surrounding him at this moment) told him he was going to die, in the end they were wrong. He lived. Cancer, how his last death sentence was called, was defeated.

The reason why Omeda-san knew he would never leave this room alive was because he could smell it. This smell of death and rot that was still perceivable through all the germicide around.

For a moment Omeda-san tried to decide which death he would choose if he would be able to, cancer or this one, but in the end he gave it up.

"_To be 100% precise cancer is the reason I got in touch with them and this is why I'm going to die now. So both deaths are quite connected"_ Omeda-san thought with a little smile. "What a funny world we live in" he mumbled with this voice of a 9-year old boy; he had been 40 years ago.

"We live in yeah" a dulled female voice said, seemingly wearing a surgical mask "but in…" she hesitated "30 minutes we're going to be one person less."

Omeda-san smiled again "did you just look at your watch?" he asked amused since he couldn't see a single thing through his blindfold. He just had to imagine a young woman, wearing a doctor's overall, surrounded by all those serious-looking men with their scalpels ready to hurt him, and giving her watch a cool look.

"In this room it seems like only we two are having some fun" the female voice reappeared, sounding as amused as he did before and suddenly he felt a warmth near his cheek and her voice spoke, just some millimeter away from his ear "why aren't you afraid of the death?"

He smiled and replied "well, first because a beautiful young woman is here with me and second because I accepted my mortality a long time ago. Now I just enjoy the fact that this death is a million times cooler than just dying in a hospital."

The warmth vanished and after some silent moments he could hear the female voice again "How do you know I'm beautiful?"

"Oh let me keep this last secret of mine" he said slowly and still enjoying this conversation.

"But please tell a goner one thing. When did you last flirt with an all grown up man in the body of a little boy?"

The voice snickered, but except of this it kept quite.

The next thing that Omeda felt was the warm touch of a delicate hand on his shoulder and then a knife that started to open his body and his screams fulfilled the room, which was the end of the conversation and Wataru Omeda's life.

* * *

><p>{Conan}<p>

"Wataru Omeda. Omeda-san. Wataru-kun. Hiiiiiiim. The please-please-find-him-man."

Conan threw an annoyed glare over from his newspaper to Kogoro who was repeating all those versions of this name since more than 20 minutes.

The old tantei sat at his desk, which was buried under millions of photos and other papers, his head on his hands and babbling those name-versions.

Finally Kogoro poured out a long sigh and dropped his head down onto the table and his papers, which made Conan role his eyes and vanish behind his newspaper again.

Two weeks ago the daughter of Omeda-san and her husband showed up at the detective-agency and asked Kogoro to find her dad who had vanished two years ago.

First Kogoro tried to explain them that the chance to find a person who had vanished 2 years ago is nearly 0%, but then the young woman showed him the letter she had gotten 3 days ago.

"_I'm sorry I vanished without telling you. I'm sorry we won't be able to talk ever again. I'm sorry I will never be able to see my grandchildren. See you in the afterlife._

_I love you, dad_

_P.S. Guess who defeated his cancer?"_

it said and beyond this there was a smiley that was kind of a, as Mrs Omeda said, self-portrait of her dad who was beaming.

"Dad had always had this way of black-humor, you know." Mrs Omeda added when Kogoro had read the letter.

Then she told them that her dad had suffered from cancer since he was 48 but then, when the doctors told him he wouldn't live much longer, he vanished. The police couldn't find him and they thought he had vanished to die on his own, but now this letter arrived and they wanted to find him.

Conan curled his lips to his half annoyed-half amused smirk _"but the problem is that they engaged the most-incompetent-tantei ever" _he though with another look at Kogoro who was still lying static on his papers.

To be fair the search for this man turned out quite difficult, ok Conan had to admit that. He had vanished together with all hints where he had gone to and why.

And this _why_ was what caught Conan's attention. Usually he had disposed this case as an old, funny man who tried to manage his death on his own way, but the fact that he left this letter where he seemed to regret never meeting his grandchildren was awkward. _"If he defeated cancer why isn't he just returning and meeting them?"_

Conan scratched his head, folded up his newspaper, which hadn't told him anything useful and got up from the sofa, without really knowing what to do next. When there was a case still unsolved he never felt like dealing with something else, but what could he do else?

The papers where read, the photos inspected, the news scanned; nothing. Conan walked over to Kogoro's desk and had another look over a pack of papers which Kogoro got from the hospital where Omeda-san spent the last days before he vanished. Slowly he scanned them without really reading anything, it was more something he did because he had no idea what to do else. _"Gosh, in one of those crime-novels this would be the perfect moment for the phone to ring and give the detective the information he needed to solve this riddle."_ Conan thought and smirked while putting back the papers, when a shrill ring cut through the oppressive silence and made Conan and Kogoro wince.

While Conan's face still showed an expression of total incredulity, Kogoro got himself up from his desk and reached for the phone. "Hai, Mori desu." His voice answered a little grumpy "ah, Megure what'… WHAT?" the eyes of the old tantei widened and suddenly this attitude of a tired drunkard dropped away and was replaced by this fully-awake manner.

A moment of tensed silence follow meanwhile Conan tried to read in Kogoro's eyes what Megure was telling him, but in the end it was Kogoro himself who said, maybe more to himself than to Conan, "how should I explain this to Mrs. Omeda?... If it's true… no, that'd be lot too cruel."

Some minutes later Kogoro, Ran and Conan took a cap and drove towards Beika pier. Kogoro just told them that the police found a body which DNA resembled the DNA he had gotten from Mrs. Omeda to find her dad and had brought to the police to search for any matches in their data, so Megure needed Kogoro as some sort of witness to since he investigated since some days in the Omeda-case, but the distressed look on Kogoro's face told Conan that there was something more than a normal dead body waiting for them; something, as Kogoro said himself, a lot crueler.

* * *

><p>{Conan}<p>

"The victim was male, between 35 and 55 years old, time of death should be about 2 days ago, cause of death… is still unknown." Megure-kebu closed his report and looked up to Conan, Ran and at least he threw a meaningful look over to Kogoro.

"So it is Mr Omeda?" Ran asked with a worried tone.

"Well..." Megure started, again looking at Kogoro, seemingly not knowing what to say "maybe. That's why you're father is here, we hope he… he can tell us." Megure finished and turned over to the copse which was locked by some police-lines, before anyone could ask any further questions.

"You wait here." Kogoro ordered, giving Ran a look that was ought to say something like _"and watch out that the boy isn't following me"_ and went over to the copse, too. Badly Ran understood this look perfectly well and kneeled down to Conan before he could even think of an excuse for following Kogoro though.

Her warm arms hugged the little tantei close to her and captivated him, what he tolerated half unwilling-half appreciating. _"I really wonder what alienates Megure like that."_ Conan pondered, hardly trying to keep his thoughts away from what he felt in his back, "_at least he is quite experienced… so what could have happened to Omeda that makes him behave that insecure. Or is it just because he thought he couldn't speak freely while Ran and I are around, but that…"_ a warm breath from behind him interrupted Conan's thoughts; a sigh from Ran. "I really wonder how many crime scenes we visited since Shinichi left." Out of frustration and sadness she hugged the boy in her arms even closer, not recognizing how red his face had become "and then I just wonder how many more it will be till he returns" she added with a low voice. Not that this would have been a problem to Conan since her mouth was only some millimeters away from his ear.

It must have been 5 minutes till Conan recognized that it had been 5 minutes since he had thought anything useful. Seemingly this breath from Ran had blown away most of his case-concerning thoughts and with a wave of embarrassment streaming though his body he wriggled out of her hug and ran over to the copse where Megure and Kogoro had vanished before, waving a lame excuse to Ran, before she could stop him. Not that he had come very far with this, because he ran exactly into Kogoro, who picked him up and walked over to Ran, still carrying Conan who decided that this was one of the most embarrassing investigations of a crime scene he had ever joined.

Suddenly Kogoro gave him one of his rare serious looks and said "this is no crime scene I want a child to see" and the way he said it Conan knew that the victim, no matter if it was Omeda-san or not, must have had a dreadful death, what doesn't mean that Conan wasn't still willing to see it, at least he had to find out what had happened and for that he needed as many information as he could get.

Finally the two tanteis had reached Ran and Kogoro let Conan down again, agitatedly lighting up a cigarette. "Was it Omeda-san?" Ran asked, sounding so very worried, but her father just drew on his cig and closed his eyes, thoughtfully. Then slowly he let the smoke out again and replied "most likely. The DNA is the … the same and there are also other hints which point out on that." He said hesitantly and fast he added "and now I don't want to hear any further questions."


	2. Rest in pieces

_**Chapter 2: Rest in pieces**_

_SORRY! I messed up this chapter with a 2. chapter from another FF of mine v.v This is the real one!:  
><em>

_Phew the hardest task about this chapter was to find proper codenames v.v So if anyone of you has a good one please tell me about it ;) just in case I need some more ;* thx_

* * *

><p>{Absinth}<p>

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the woman slammed both her hands on the huge wooden desk they we're all sitting at. Her breath was heavy and she seemed to have lost her natural beauty and swapped it with this pure fury.

_Cider_, her code name was and all Absinth knew about her were 3 things. First: She is a really big gun. She was the boss of this silly research team he was put in and should also be quite close to the BOSS and that though she couldn't be much older than 20.

Second: She and this tall, good-looking man standing behind her called _Guinness_ were somewhat of a couple. _Black Velvet_. That was how they were called whenever they weren't around.

And third: Whoever dared to anger her was as good as dead. No one exactly knew if this boyfriend of hers was killing whoever got into her way or if she used those people for her experiments, but as far as Absinth could believe all the rumors he didn't want to become the one Cider blamed for this mistake.

"I told you to make the remains _vanish_! Not to throw them into the second-best copse." Cider continued her fit of rage "And now it fell into the hands of the police and the sleeping Kogoro!"

She paused for a moment and tried to compose herself, but the break which Absinth quite enjoyed was interrupted by a man, some seats left from Absinth, clearing his through.

"_This guy is either an idiot, or just __suicide-endangered."_ Absinth declared satisfied, because this would mean Cider would focus her anger on him.

"I just wonder" the man started to talk with some sort of a shrill but still very deep voice, which Absinth had never heard before "that you always keep telling us that this Mori-tantei is no threat… So if he is as dumb as you say, why do we care?"

As discreet as possible Absinth tried to lean forward to catch a glimpse on this poor goner, but before he could spot something more of him than a thick (and slightly lopsided) nose another voice appeared. It wasn't Cider's voice, but concerning its cruel tone it could easily keep up with Cider's. "Just because he's a moron it doesn't mean you're allowed to donate him any hints to find us Cognac."

Absinth needed some time to recognize that the man behind Cider had spoken, Guinness. "Besides it was the task of your team to make sure we stay undiscovered, right?" he said, walking some steps up to this Cognac-guy and placed his hand on his shoulder. "So maybe we should discuss that in private." He faked a grin which made Absinth shiver and so it took a load off his mind when everyone else was allowed to leave the conference hall.

"_Not for the entire world I'd take Cognac's place at the moment."_ He thought while he did his best to leave the room quick and without looking back _"but if it's true that Cognac's team screw up this 'cleaning up' I wonder what's about the others they had to handle… Not that it's my problem, anyways."_

* * *

><p>{Conan}<p>

"I did it!" Conan entered the house of Agasa-hakase, in a pose of victory holding up a folder with pictures and documents. "it took every ounce of my not-inconsiderable experience , but at least I got them." Smirking he placed the folder on a table in the living room, followed by the amused looks of the hakase.

"Since when are you quoting this Sherlock Holmes movie Shinichi?" he asked curiously walking over to the boy who just sat down on a huge chair to reach the table. "Since I'm in a good temper today, I finally could come across all information about the Omeda-case. I had to call Megure as Shinichi 6 times, but finally I got them." He smirked and hopped with the chair closer to the desk "I'm in such a good temper, that I don't even care that my feet don't reach the ground" he chirped and with pleasant anticipation he opened the folder and started sorting everything carefully.

Two days ago Kogoro, Ran and Conan had visited the crime scene where Kogoro and Megure had did his best to keep this case away from him, but of course it didn't work. It took him two days and 6 calls with his Shinichi-voice, but finally Megure told him what they found in that copse at the pier. Some body parts, some had the same DNA like Omeda, but others not and so the police came to the conclusion that it must be body parts of at least 3 different people.

"How can anyone rejoice that much about some documents and pictures about fragmented bodies?" a cold voice appeared from behind Conan. "Nice to see you, too Haibara" Conan replied, still happily going through the papers. Ai sighed and walked over to the table, too "we're lucky you're one of the good guys, since I'm aware you'd make a great killer" she said also having a look on some of the photos "both, detective and psychos, get excited over a brutal…" he voice was barely more than a mumbling while she scanned a pack of photos from the body parts when suddenly her eyes widened and her face went all pail.

"A brutal… what?" Conan asked moony and since he got no answer he reluctantly unglued his eyes from the papers up to Ai and saw her shocked face. "I told you those photos aren't for the faint of heart" and with these words he charily pulled the pack out of her fingers which, how Conan surprised recognized, were shivering. "Are you all right Haibara?" he asked but she kept quiet, shook her head and suddenly she took the photos back, fretfully scanning them with her eyes.

"No way…" she mumbled and put one of the pictures on the desk, reaching for a second pack of photos "here … and here" she mumbled, her voice growing shaky. After a few moments 4 photos were laying on the table, separated from the others and Ai was starring at them, thunderstruck and head-shaking.

"Wh… what's wrong?" Conan asked, his eyes scampering between those pictures and Ai. "It's them." She said and her voice was barely more than a whisper "the black organization… it's them, machigai nai. See!" she screamed the last word and pointed her finger at one of the pictures.

Conan raised it up to his eyes and Haibara said "see, this emblem" she pointed at a circle-shaped wound on a leg. First Conan had thought it was a scar, but now he saw that it was some sort of burn mark. Fast Conan grabbed his magnifying glass and examined it carefully. A circle with some numbers in it: "3/1/12".

"What…?" he started but Ai interrupted him. "They put this on some of the people they do experiments on… I once work in such a research team; they burn it into them after they're dead… just to sort them, you know… to keep track of them. But I never heard that those bodies get found… either they burn them or… get rid of them in another way."

The whole time she spoke low, nervous and slightly shaky. Her eyes seemed to go blank, just like she was away with her mind, but suddenly it seemed to return and she narrowed her eyes onto Conan, looking like she wanted him to disprove what she said, but he just nodded and scanned the other 3 photos. On all body parts in those 3 he could spot parts of those circle-emblems.

"And those numbers are dates, right?" he asked "3/1/12 should be the third January 2012 … and the others… 8/12/11… and 21/12/11." Ai nodded "yeah… that's the date of their death, so we know that these are really 3 different persons… or at least parts of them." Slowly her voice grew back to normal but still Conan knew how shocked Ai felt. Whenever they got in touch with the black organization, Ai kinda fell into a condition somewhere between panic and coldness. But this time Conan could fully understand it. If it was true, and he did not see any reason to doubt Ai's word, the organization was doing experiments on people and afterwards cutting them into piece and getting rid of these.

"That's not good at all" Conan mumbled and gave the photos an unbelieving smile, his good temper had vanished.

* * *

><p>{Guinness}<p>

"You shouldn't get that het up just because some of these idiots messed up the 'cleaning-up'." Guinness said, softly running his hand over her hair.

"I got het up?" Cider asked turning around to him with a skeptical look on her face "you're the one who did this." She replied all cold and pointed at the corpse of Cognac which lay on the floor between their feet "not that I would mind anyways" she admitted after a break.

He grinned and kissed her lips; how he loved her red lips, they were the only thing in his life that tasted fresh and untainted, but after some seconds she pushed him away.

"C'mon, I didn't want to annoy you" he said, carefully avoiding the phrase _'to hurt you'_ (last time he used it she had nearly killed him, metaphorically spoken) "plus, you know I appreciate this side of you." He walked up to her and started kissing her neck; she tolerated it.

Guinness had never been a man to love one woman, but in Cider he found something special. _"Sometimes she is more than just 1 woman"_ he though, still kissing her, aware of the fact that beyond their feet there was a corpse glaring up with dead, open eyes. When he first met her, back than a girl of only 15 years, he just had recognized her strong side, but slowly he recognized so much more within her. She had a strong side, of course, a cruel side and even a side he couldn't estimate by now. It was this secret side that hid her private life from him.

Guinness didn't know a lot about his girlfriend, indeed. He knew she had still a life without organization and she would never allow the blackness from the organization to infect this life; and Guinness was a part of this darkness.

Slowly he stop the kissing and looked up to her "say… why do you always get upset about this Mori-tantei?" he asked, carefully scanning her face in case she would explode again, but instead she stood very calm and replied "Well, I have a certain feeling about this tantei… I always thought him to be a moron, but suddenly he started solving cases and getting famous…"

"So what?" Guinness wondered.

"I think he has someone to help him, someone who pulls the strings from the background" she smiled a cruel smile and added "and I prefer to be the one in the background."

He looked at her, he knew that smile of hers, it means she had a plan and it would be a masterpiece.


	3. The Masterpiece

_**Chapter 3: The Masterpiece**_

_Again, sorry about messing up the last chapter, if you've read it and wondered who Lilly, Alice and Kita are please go back and read the 2. Chapter again, now it's the REAL one ;D_

_Btw: I know they don't use beepers in the new Conan EPs anymore, but in the earliest they did and I needed them :3 so: welcome back beepers!_

* * *

><p>{Sonoko}<p>

"And then this Shuhou-guy turned around to me and said: _'That's not my mother, it's my aunt'_ and we all burst out laughing" Sonoko finished her report about the employer-party she visited this weekend and satisfied she recognized a smile on Ran's face.

Actually it was just a short, half-faked smile, but it was the happiest reaction she had seen from her friend since ages; since she went to this crime-scene of Omeda-san, who ended up fragmented.

"Ne, Sonoko-chan" Ran suddenly started talking; her head still lowered "don't you think a fragmented corpse is interesting?"

Sonoko widened her eyes and stared at Ran, hesitantly she said "uhm… Ran-chan… well." She had to admit that this wasn't the best answer, but at least it made Ran talk again.

"I… I just mean, it should be interesting enough for a detective to return, right? I mean… what case could be more thrilling that this? What…" Ran broke off and took a long sip from her coffee. Sonoko finally understood and gave Ran a caring smile.

"He's a moron Ran." Sonoko started, laying her hand softly onto Ran's "he vanished, he barely calls and…" surprised Sonoko saw some tears rolling down her friend's cheek while she nodded.

"I know, I really know, but… I want him back." She whispered the last words so Sonoko nearly had to guess them. "Sometimes I wonder…" Ran continued, still that low that Sonoko had to lower her head closer to Ran's "… sometimes I wonder if he will first start thinking about me when I'm lying dead in front of him."

Now Sonoko felt like crying, too. Because the thought of Ran's corpse was just too terrifying, because she finally understood was going on in her head and because she felt the anger against Shinichi choked her.

"Don't ever say something like that" she said with a shaky voice, trying to fight the tears "ok look, I'm now going to pay our coffee and then we'll go home and just talk for a while, ok?" she gave Ran an encouraging smile "ok?" she asked again, this time more insistently.

"Ok" Ran replied and tried to smile "I just go to the toilet first and dry my face" and so both girls got up, walking away from each other and Sonoko paid their bill with the feeling of being a really good friend. Usually she would have preferred to go shopping with Ran to cheer her up, but now it was time to care more for Ran than for herself.

* * *

><p>{Conan}<p>

_Now we have 1 from 2012 and 2 from 2011_ Conan thought.

"Kudo."

_In 2011 they start in December… but these won't be the only corpses…_

"Ne, Kudo-kun!"

_If Haibara's right they started this before she left the organization…_

"KU-DOOO!"

The female voice had finally broken through the wall of thoughts Conan had vanished behind. Confused he blinked and looked around like someone who just awoke, till he understood that it was Ai who had spoken.

"It's 8 p.m. and your beeper keeps peeping since some hours, don't you think you should go home?" she said and let herself down on a chair near Conan; his beeper in her hand.

He runs his fingers through his hair which felt disheveled and mumbled "I can't help it. I can feel that this is the hint I need to track them down, but something's missing… something important."

Ai sighed and opened her mouth to answer, but the beeper from her hand started peeping and so she just held it out to Conan who grabbed it, while he finally understood what this annoying sound was he had heard through the last hour; he just had forgotten that this could be the sound of a beeper, he had some more important stuff to think about.

"It's Kogoro" he wondered out loud "what does he want?"

"Maybe that you go home, at least it's 8 p.m." Ai said, smirking about his confusion.

"Do you want to get rid of me?" he asked, half as a joke but then he saw something in Ai's eyes, something he had last seen some month ago, but he couldn't remember when, he could only say that it made him feel a little scared.

_She is… hiding something from me…_ he pondered while packing together the papers, stuffing them into his bag and making his way over to the Mori-house.

He was sure Ai knew more than she had told him… and then this weird look in her eyes when she wanted him to leave…

Conan sighed, this was ridicules, _Ai left them and she is helping me to track them down not supporting them…_

He closed his eyes and pushed this idea away, but as soon as it was gone it got replaced by the anger against Kogoro.

_The most bothering thing about being this small is that no one seems to understand I have investigations to do, what can be that important that Kogoro is peeping me out of this now? An empty fridge? Dinner waiting? What?_

Conan thought pissed while he entered the house and opened the door, not recognizing the police-car parking in front of the house.

First when he saw Megure sitting opposite Kogoro and Sonoko on the sofa; Sonoko crying and Kogoro keeping his head down, he understood that it was something different.

"He-hello…?" he said sheepish and closed the door behind him.

The only thing he got in reply where 3 very sad looks and Megure offering Conan a seat beneath him. "What's the matter?" he asked, slowly feeling worried, not sitting down.

"It's about Ran..." Megure started, since he seemed to be the only one in the room who was able to speak "she got hijacked."

Slowly, nearly numb, Conan walked up to Megure and sat down beneath him, he didn't really listen to the following conversation… he just felt he needed a seat to keep balance.

* * *

><p>{Guinness}<p>

"If I wouldn't know it better than that I'd think I'm annoying you" Guinnes looked up to Cider after some minutes of one-sided kissing.

Both were standing in her office and he had just spent some time kissing the upper half of her body, she seemed to tolerate it. He'd love to tell himself that today she was acting more repellent than usual, but she behave like she did always.

Cider's lips curled "Dear, you're not annoying me, sometimes you drive me insane, sometimes you make me laugh at you, but you're not annoying me." Slowly she turned around to the window, seemingly seeing something else than the dark night outside.

"That was, most likely, the most romantic thing you ever said to me" Guinness smirked and he made some steps closer to her, so he could see Cider's reflection in the window raising an eyebrow.

"Please don't tell me you enjoy romantic?" she said, twisting her mouth snidely "don't mix up this relationship with love, dear."

He curled his lips again and hugged Cider "I wouldn't dare" he murmured. He had always known that Cider wasn't in love with him, he was actually afraid of the day Cider would use the 'L-word', though he couldn't understand why she didn't love him… He was handsome, powerful and, even though he hated to admit it, he loved her as much as he felt able to 'love' a person.

"It's because you have someone else, right?" he hissed and, as expected, Cider smiled

"How is he?" he asked, feeling something foreign in his stomach as Cider turned around and kiss him "don't rack your little brain over it, you can't mess with him anyways" she said and smiled in a way he had never seen before, he didn't like it at all.

"Fine, then I have to kill him, how sounds that to you?" he said slowly after a little break and felt a little silly while saying that, he had never felt jealousy before, but Cider just nodded "yeah… I think that would spare me a lot of trouble."

* * *

><p>{Conan}<p>

"She didn't return from the toilet… We'll find her… I paid the bill… no ransom note, yet… police is searching for her… There was no suspect person in the café … why didn't she use karate… we'll get in touch with you… try to sleep for some hours"

That was mostly everything Conan had noticed during the talk with Megure. Just some phrases which kept buzzing through his head, some from Megure, Sonoko or Kogoro and some may from himself… he wasn't really sure about that.

And now he felt himself walking up the stairs to the living quarters of the house. He couldn't stand the silence downstairs anymore and so he pretended to go to bed. _Ok let's start from the beginning… Why would anyone want to kidnap Ran? Money can't really be a reason… her dad is chronically broke and he mother isn't rich, too… Revenge? Well maybe some of the people I, as Kogoro, sent to prison will use Ran for their revenge… _Conan pondered while he felt himself sitting down on something smooth.

_Or she'll be used as a leverage against Kogoro…or me?_ He cross his arms behind his head and leaned back. _Against me? What enemies do I have during I'm that small? I… them!_ The thought suddenly popped up in his brain as he lost the balance and fell back where no wall could stop him, but he didn't care, he'd landed on something smooth anyways, the thought was what had really hit him.

_When the guys in black really understood who I am… they could try to use Ran as a leverage against me! No… no wait that's ridiculous. In that case, or case of revenge, I'd get a ransom note or call or anything like that. _The feeling of sudden fear which had sloshed over him vanished as soon as it had come. He was just panicking, of course he was, Ran had been hijacked. But now it was time to calm down and focus on this case.

He stretched and looked around surprisingly recognizing that he was lying on Ran's bed. Fast he got up and left the room with a red face and a fuzzy feeling in the tummy which he enjoyed for a moment. The last hours had been hard, that hard that he hadn't even recognized himself walking into Ran's room and sitting down on her bed and so he welcomed every kind of happy feeling, badly it didn't last long. The ringing of his mobile phone, Shinichi's mobile phone, burst the little happiness balloon within him and left nothing but the old fears. '_No wait that's ridiculous. In that case I'd get a ransom note or call or anything like that' _his own thoughts echoed in his head while he reached for the phone.


	4. The ritual

_**Chapter 4: The ritual**_

_No story from me this time, just a little quote I found and which hopefully fits this chapter._

_"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever." by Taylor Hanson_

_Oh and again special thx to LEP-Surface Division, this time he helped me with my English ^^;_

* * *

><p>{Ai}<p>

"H…hai" Conan answered her call with an unusual shaky voice, he sounded nearly scared so Ai skipped the greeting and asked "Kudo… are you alright?"

"Haibara?" his voice replied loudly and sounded released "is it you?"

"Of course it's me" she answered unmeant repellent. She couldn't avoid her voice growing this cold when she found herself in an odd or scary situation and Conan sounding scared was odd. Usually he'd ignored her sudden coldness, but something seemed wrong, with an irritable loud voice he answered "How should I know...? Fine I have no time for that at the moment! So if it's nothing important, I'd…"

"It is." She interrupted him "so just come over, I won't tell you that at the phone!" she hung up and leaned against the cold wall near the phone, with a long sigh she closed her eyes and tried to keep calm, she needed to retain control. She liked control, over herself and the things which were going on, but when those pictures appeared she had lost it and she couldn't stand that, it made her nervous and irritable.

She knew this situation was dangerous, Conan was close to track the organization down and so Ai needed every ounce of control she could bring up; otherwise things would get out of hand because she couldn't expect Conan to keep control, he would lose it as soon as there was a chance to defeat the organization; he would even run into a trap head over heels so she was the one to keep her head clear.

_No disturbing emotions at the moment_ she decided when a sudden knock brought her back to reality. "Hai, come in." she said loud enough for anyone who was standing outside and kept her eyes shut. Just for one more second she wanted to enjoy this silence, just interrupted by the night outside; the darkness she could leave whenever she wanted to and the safety of a foothold in her back.

"So what's it?" a well known voice thrust into Ai's little cocoon and the moment she recognized she was enjoying _this_ too, she opened her eyes and winced. Conan had brought his face only some millimeters away from hers so the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was her own reflection in his glasses followed by two blue eyes blinking at her.

Both stared at each other for a moment and then Ai understood that he wasn't going to back down and she pushed him aside and went over to the sofa. _Maybe this was a silly idea… maybe I shouldn't tell him, I… I could just give him some sort of excuse. _Ai pondered and turned around; Conan hadn't followed her, instead he was leaning against the wall, Ai had just used as a foothold, with his eyes closed, just that he was standing there with his face leaned against the wall looking like he would lose balance without this backing.

"What happened?" Ai asked flatly.

* * *

><p>{Ran}<p>

It was dark and moist and noisy in there. If anyone had entered the room he or she had seen nothing but a girl kneeling on a dirty, tiled floor in front of a huge machine.

She tried to keep her breath calm but the pain made this quite impossible. She dared to give the machine a short glare. She couldn't see much of it, the absolute darkness was only interrupted by the on and off blinking little lamp on its top; so the whole room was flooded in orange light every 34 seconds; she had counted them. And so every 34 seconds she could spot her own bare arm half swallowed by this machine and every time the lamp went on a twinge shot through her arm.

She lowered her head again and tried to ignore the steady buzzing of the monster which had swallowed her arm. How long was she sitting there? How often had this little lamp went on since she was in there? 100 time? 200? More? If she had accepted the offer of one of those _doctors_ to stay with her she could've asked them what time it was.

She moved her legs and tried to stretch without moving her arm too much. _For nothing in this world I wanted to have them here with me. I even prefer to stay here on my own in this room._ She thought and suddenly felt more like crying than the whole time she was here. There was only one person who she wanted to have with her here and that was impossible.

_Shinichi_ she thought and the pain which suddenly shot through her body had nothing to do with the machine hurting her again. How many questions they had asked her about him, how many questions she had heard and thought about and decided to say nothing. She didn't know if she was worrying too much but she decided not to give them any information about him. And now she was sitting there, knowing she, most likely, wouldn't be able to return because of this decision.

* * *

><p>{Conan}<p>

He took the teacup and tried to figure this situation out, but it was much too… too odd.

He sipped from the tea, the tea she had made for him and he frowned. He couldn't remember anyone ever cooking tea to for him and he had never imagined Ai to be the first one to do it.

But when he had told her about Ran getting hijacked she had just gotten up and started to cook tea. One cup, just for him; so it was not just a host sharing a drink with a guest, it was Ai trying to calm him. He sipped again and put it down again. He was sure he hadn't sounded too worried when he told Ai about it so he didn't really understand why she had made it, but the fact was that he had really needed it. He had needed something warm and sweet to drink and especially something to do, even though it was just taking the cup, drinking and putting it down again, at least it was something he could do. Ai understood that, he was sure about it, that was why she had made it and she had understood that he had not understood it till now, that was why she didn't offered him a tea, she just made one.

"So that was why my call kinda shocked you, you thought I'm the kidnapper." Ai said after some moments of silence. "Sorry bout that."

"Uhm… it's ok." Conan replied slowly and nearly smiled; Ai was really trying to treat him lightly. "So why did you call me?" he asked, suddenly remembering the real reason why he was here, it was not because he needed someone to talk. Even though he'd appreciated it he felt like changing the issue now.

"Uhm… nothing important, not at the moment." She said, carefully avoiding his look but Conan had expected such a reaction and grinned.

"For god's sake Haibara, please don't treat me like I'm fragile or something." He said gentle, half to make himself stop feeling just like that. Ai shook her head.

"That's not it… it's just something about another case of yours and I believe you want to focus on Mori-chan at the moment."

Conan raised an eyebrow. He had now other cases at the moment… only…

"You're talking about the Omeda-case?" he asked leaning a little bit forward, but then he stopped himself. Was that really what he wanted? To distress himself with a case about the black organization? To _forget_ about Ran?

"I…." he begun leaning back again "… it's just that there is nothing for me to do at the moment… The police is at the café, which I don't know where it is, and without the report about it I can't really start doing anything… So if there's something important about the Omeda-case just tell me ok? Maybe it could help me to kill some time."

For some minutes both remained silent. Conan had decided it would be the best to tell Ai the truth, he knew this would make her hesitate and over think the situation, that was what she did when someone opened up to her, but he knew he had to, at the moment he felt sick of all the lies and so he decided to avoid them, though it was maybe just for tonight.

Finally she nodded "it's something I didn't tell you about the organization… I didn't because it's horrible and I… well anyways now I'm telling you because maybe… maybe it has something to do with the body parts they found some days ago… But I'm not sure!"

"Uhm, ok" he said, trying to imagine what would be that horrible.

"Every played Kagome Kagome when you were young?" she asked and Conan frowned.

He knew Kagome Kagome was a game children play in the kindergarten or elementary, but he had never actually played it himself.

"No… I know it's this game children play… one is sitting in the middle I believe, with its eyes covered, and the others circle it walk around and… sing. Something like that, I've hear about it, why?"

"Yeah… the child in the middle has to guess who is standing behind it when they quit singing, if it's right it's allowed to switch place with the child behind it, if not… well when you're young the game goes one…" Ai said with this voice she always used when she talked about the organization, about something there she had _joined._

"But why is that important?" he asked, not feeling able to listen to an endless prologue.

"Because" she replied and got up from the sofa "this research team I mentioned earlier… I just joined it for a month then they redeployed me… anyways Kagome Kagome was a ritual this research team used." By the time she had finished her explanation she'd reached the window, glaring outside.

"R…ritual? What kind of?" Conan asked slowly.

"It works like the game Kagome Kagome I just explained. The victim is sitting in a middle of those doctors and they circle it. In the end it has to guess the name of the doctor in its back, who is actually the same who did experiments on it before and the same who will kill it in case it's not able to guess the name, the real name."

Conan glared at her with wide eyes, that sounded just… ridiculous "b… but why? That's lunatic." He could see Ai nodding, still looking out of the window. "That's basically what she is." She mumbled and her eyes, or at least their reflection in the window, seemed to be far away.

"She?" Conan asked flatly "who?" Ai hesitated "I… I neither know her name," she begun "nor how old she is… Everything I know is that she's called 'Cider'… and she is mad. Completely and alarmingly mad. I never saw or talked to her, but everyone spoke about her and everyone seemed to be frightened…"

He nodded, his head still filled up with questions. _Cider… A woman, a __dangerous__ woman… he pondered._ "But… that's lunatic" he repeated "why should members of such a cruel organization use this childish game?"

"I said she's mad. It was her idea, she said something about `giving them a chance'… not that anyone ever had one, how should they know about the name of any of those members?"

"And… and why do you think this is connected to Omeda's death?"

"I told you I'm not sure… it's just that this researched team; they're called 'Kagome Kagome' by the way, since this ritual is even in the organization's-circle something special; used those burn marks with the date of death first."

Conan leaned back, the day's exhaustion hitting all at once. He'd hoped for some progress in the Omeda-case, some clue that'd bring him closer to the organization, but instead he had got more confusion and pieces of a puzzle that had grown enormous, from which none seemed to fit together.

Tonight there was only one thing that seemed obviously to Conan, whoever this Cider-woman was Ai had mentioned, he had to find her, maybe her madness was the key he needed to track the people in black down.

* * *

><p>{Cider}<p>

"Everything's done." The voice of the person behind her said.

"The cleaning up went just as you ordered." It said again since Cider did not bother to give it any sing that she had heard. To her all this people in the doctor's overall were just faceless puppets; one just like the other; no one worth her attention and most of them accepting it, but this one was persistent.

Cider slowly turned her head and gave the person a cruel glare; it vanished head over heels and Cider curled her lips, turning around to the window again. The moment her eyes were looking out into the dark night again she had already forgotten if this puppet was a man or a woman, young or old; it just didn't matter to her.

"Ran Mori is dead." She said and tried to listen carefully to her own words so she could fully understand what that meant."Well first it means one rival in the matter of 'Shinichi's-girlfriend' is eliminated." She said half laughing and opened the mobile phone from Ran she had kept as some sort of memory. "Second, if he finds out that I was the one who quite killed her it will most likely break his heart."

She increased her grip on the phone and went through some of the photos. _Would be fair right?_ She thought bitterly _he broke mine day after day after day._

She stopped and opened a picture called 'Conan'.

"You think this fair too, ne Shinichi?" she asked the picture of the boy with the glasses before the pulled out the memory card of the phone and broke it.


End file.
